This is the year that was in B2B marketing, All the stats, facts and opinions that have caught our attention this year.

1. THIS IS THE YEAR
THAT WAS IN B2B
MARKETING 2014
CRUNCHED
All the facts, the stats,
the quotes and more
♯yearinb2b

2. 2014 was the year…

3. Inbound Marketing was
hot to trot.

4. B2B Buyer Landscape,
Demand Generation
No surprise when:
54% of B2B buyers
begin the buying
process with an
informal search
around business
challenges.
78% of the
time they use the
Internet to initiate
that research.

5. Brian Halligan
CEO and Founder - HubSpot
Image @ Flickr. Creative Commons.
“Google is the
trusted advisor in
the sales process.”

6. Lori Wizdo
Principal Analyst,
Forrester Research
“Today’s buyers
might be anywhere
from two-thirds to
90% of the way
through their journey
before they reach out
to a vendor.”

7. Source: Gartner
via Marketing Profs
“The last person
your buyers want
to talk to is one of
your sales people.”

8. Brian Halligan
CEO and Founder - HubSpot
Image @ Flickr. Creative Commons.
“The sales rep
used to have all
the power, now
the prospect has
all the power.”
The thing is…

9. And the message was clear…
www.earnest-agency.com
www.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.com
David Meerman Scott
Online marketing strategist and author
Image @ Flickr. Creative Commons.
“You can sell more when you stop selling.”

10. In 2014, B2B
marketers realised
it was time to be
helpful.

11. www.earnest-agency.com
www.earnest-agency.com
“You can’t always
out-spend. But
you can out-think,
out-tech and out-
help.”
Dharmesh Shah
CTO and Founder - Hubspot
Image @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

12. Content was
the buzzword of
the year

13. Source: Google
There are about 357,000,000 search
results for ‘Content Marketing’ on
Google. And that’s just people talking
about Content Marketing.
What’s all the fuss
about?

14. Source: LinkedIn:
Nurturing the IT committee
“Senior IT decision
makers need, on average,
7 pieces of marketing
content before they’re
ready to talk.”

15. Source: Aberdeen – Content Chaos
“Website conversion rate is
nearly 6x higher for
content marketing adopters
than non-adopters (2.9% vs
0.5%).”

16. “90% of consumers find custom
content useful, 78% believe the
organisations behind the content
are interested in building good
relationships.”
Source: McMurray/TMG

17. “82% of marketers who
blog see positive ROI for
their inbound marketing.”
Source: HubSpot

18. So ‘Content is King’,
right?
Image @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

19. www.earnest-agency.com
www.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.com
“If content is king –
there are 27,000,000
pieces of content
shared every day –
that’s a lot of kings.”
Well…
Kieran Flanagan
Marketing Director - HubSpot
Image @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

20. “The amount of available web-
based content is doubling every 9-
24 months.”
Our ability to consume is finite.
There are only so many hours in a
day.”
Source: Content Shock,
Businessgrow.com

21. It’s getting to the point where we
can’t see the wood for the trees.

22. Elizabeth Smyth, EMEA
Marketing Director, Marketo
“Every day we are served on
average 2,904 media messages.
Of which we pay attention to 52,
and positively remember 4.”

23. The truth is…
“1% of content marketing
posts receive 30% of all
shares.”
Steve Rayson,
BuzzSumo

24. So you need to stand out.
Simple.

25. 5 top tips for content success in 2015:
1. Keep it brief. Make it snackable.
2. Help. Don’t sell.
3. Maximise the use of visuals.
4. Innovate with channels and formats.
5. Deliver value, everytime.

26. “We call it ‘Youtility’ - providing
free information and resources
that delivers value without selling
to a customer.”
Kirsty Dawes, Really B2B

27. “No one watches 30
minutes of video
recording. Chop it
up into 30 second
or 1 minute videos.
Decide what the
best takeaway is
and capture that.”
Ricardo Molina,
BrightBull

28. “To give your
content a ‘wow’
effect and boost
shares use effects
like parallax, 3D
infographics, or
animated
infographics.”
Neil Patel, Crazy Egg and
KISSmetrics

29. Everything has an optimal length for sharing:
• A tweet — 71 to 100 characters
• A Facebook post – 40 characters
• A Google+ headline – 60 characters maximum
• Width of a paragraph – 40 to 55 characters
• Length of a domain name – 8 characters
• A hashtag – 6 characters
• An email subject line – 28 to 39 characters
• An SEO itle tag – 55 characters
• A blog headline – 6 words
• A LinkedIn post – 25 words
• A Blog Post – 1,600 words
• A YouTube video – 3 minutes
• A podcast – 22 minutes
• A presentation – 18 minutes
• A SlideShare – 61 slides
• A Pinterest image – 735px by 1102px
Source:
Buffer

30. With so much
content – and
everyone
campaigning on
the same issues,
it’s time to really
get under the skin
of what makes
your buyers tick.

31. “The next
revolution will be
psychological –
not technological.”
Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy
Because:

32. www.earnest-agency.com
“85% of decisions are
made by the
unconscious part of
the brain.”
Martin Lindstrom, Buyology

33. It means we need to be more
aware of how people think as
it influences how they buy.

34. www.earnest-agency.com
Chris Wilson, Earnest
“Global campaigns
have to be based on a
universal behavioural
insight if they are to be
successful. Otherwise
you end up with brand
camouflage – a lowest
common denominator
approach.”

35. “The buyer’s
pipeline
requires a
series of
micro-yesses
before
getting to
that macro
yes.”
When push
comes to shove:
Brandon Stamschrar,
MECLABS

36. But those micro-yesses even for the biggest
decisions are less rational than you think.

37. Tune into what really
motivates your buyers –
and you win.
Check out Earnest’s ‘YES
FACTOR’ to find out how

38. So what else was on the up in 2014?

39. “There’s no longer a
digital marketing
discipline. All
marketing is digital.”
Caroline Taylor,
VP of marketing and CMO, IBM Europe

40. Source: CCS Insights
40% of all internet page
requests worldwide now
come from mobile devices.
But are you mobile
friendly?

41. Andy Mihalop – Industry head
for insurance sector, Google“Competitive
advantage awaits
those brands that
can adopt and
accelerate
programmatic
(advertising).”

42. But there were words of warning:

43. Source: Forrester Business
Marketing Association and Online
Marketing Institute
83% of marketers
can’t attach a
tangible business
value to the work
they put into online
marketing.

44. Google reported 56% of online display ads
are never seen by a human being.
The New York Times reported that 47% of
video ads are never seen.
Adweek estimated that online ad fraud in
the U.S. may have reached $9.5bn.
Via Bob Hoffman,
AdContrarian

45. To some surprise, traditional
tactics are still packing a punch.

46. “The combination of
inbound and
outbound effort
multiplies your
chances of closing
more efficiently.”
Source: MarketingTechBlog

47. “1 in 3 business
buyers still attend
live events.”
Source: Buyersphere Report,
BaseOne
But only 8% of event
marketers say their
company has cracked
them.
Check out how Event Wallet from Earnest is
set to solve this

48. When everyone’s upping their
game, there were calls to think
differently

49. “In the old world, the analogue CMO
would need to tap dance round the
board room to sell an idea….”
Caroline Taylor, VP of marketing
and CMO, IBM Europe
…Now it’s all about
evidence and analysis.”

50. “If you can’t measure it, don’t do
it. There’s a beauty in numbers.”
Phil Clement, Global Chief Marketing &
Communications Officer, Aon Service Corporation

51. www.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.com
Paul Roetzer
Founder and CEO of PR 20/20
Image @ Flickr. Creative Commons.
“76% of marketers believe measurement is
important. What about the other 24%?”
But:

52. Jade Tambini, DS Smith
“For a true marketing oriented
business, everyone is the
brand. We need people to
realise that internally.”
And it’s not all about marketing:

53. “The greatest innovators are
typically fearless. If you want
great rewards, you need to be
willing to take risks.”
Gareth Case, Xchanging
So the word from the wise is to step
out of your comfort zone:

54. Graham Wylie, AppNexus
And in 2015 give it a whirl…
“What’s the worst that can
happen? You fail.
If you’re not going to do it
anyway, you’ve failed before
you started.”

55. And finally, a few
handpicked ‘best of the
bests’ from the year that
was…

56. Best presentations of 2014
1. LinkedIn: Nurturing IT committee lead
2. 15 behavioural principles to increase
conversions
3. Irresistible content for immovable prospects
4. How Google works by Eric Schmidt
5. Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 Rule for Presentations
And some home grown ones:
1. Yes factor: How to get your buyers to say yes
2. Event marketing: How to bridge the Content Chasm
3. Essential Benchmarks for B2B marketers 2014

57. 1. Things a little bird told me – Biz Stone
2. Phantoms in the brain – V.S. Ramachandran
3. Live at the Brixton Academy – Simon Parkes
4. Truth, lies and advertising – Jon Steel
5. Inbound Marketing – Brian Halligan & Dharmesh
Shah
6. Risk Savvy. How to make good decisions – Gerd
Gigerenzer
Not all published in 2014 but worth the read!
Must-reads of 2014

58. 1. Risual’s Mind-numbing corporate video
2. EMC jump a truck over a Lotus F1 car
3. VW’s priorities TV ad
4. Cisco’s IOT circle story
5. Ikea’s beautiful ad for beds
And some from us:
1. YouTube – Be here, there and everywhere
2. Canon Maxify printers – Meet the Team
3. Earnest – Expect the unexpected
Hot campaign videos of 2014

59. 1. Social Media logo redesign for breast cancer awareness
2. Teddy Rescue campaign – First Great Western
3. Blah airlines
4. Honda – the other side – Type R
5. AirBnB’s rebrand
And a few B2B campaigns from
Earnest for good measure:
1. Meet the team – Canon
2. Changing face of banking – ACI
3. Any which way - Worldpay
Campaign trailblazers of 2014

60. 1. HubSpot marketing blog
2. Dave Trott
3. Northern Planner
4. Marketing Pilgrim
5. Moz
Blogs to write home
about in 2014

61. 1. Marketing Grader – see how your website fares
2. Wanna generate links that you can share?
3. Twitter now has audio cards
4. Oculus Rift
5. Hipster business names
6. Fast 3D printers
7. The ideal length of everything
8. “I demand cheaper stuff!”
9. Event Wallet
10. YouGov’s excellent profiler tool
Top tools and tech in 2014

62. 1. Inbound 2014
2. B2B emotional engagement event
3. Event tech live
4. B2B summit 2014
5. B2B marketing – the evidence
Events we’ve loved and crunched in 2014

63. Top challenges for
B2B Marketers
going into 2015
1. ROI from your automation platform
2. Harnessing the power of your data
3. Creative bravery
4. Differentiating your content offering
5. Embracing new (all) channels
Here’s to smashing
them.

64. We’ve been
www.earnest-agency.com
earnest-agency.com
@earnestagency
A big thank you to all our, friends, contributors and sources.
Thanks to unsplash.com and Flickr.com/creativecommons for the images.
Share your highlights
#yearinb2b
…and that was 2014 crunched

65. B2B Marketing Agency of the
Year 2014